The Wallabies have made a quietly important call before Les Kiss takes charge: they have chosen continuity where it can actually shape Australia’s next cycle.
John Ulugia has been confirmed to continue as Wallabies scrum coach through to the end of 2028, while current Queensland Reds assistant Jonny Fisher will join the national set-up under Kiss after the Nations Championship Tests in July. It is not the loudest piece of Australian rugby news, but it says plenty about how Rugby Australia wants to build towards a home World Cup in 2027.
The decision keeps a Brumbies influence inside the national programme, adds another coach with recent Reds experience, and gives Kiss a staff with immediate knowledge of the players he will inherit from Super Rugby Pacific.
Why Ulugia’s extension matters
Ulugia first linked up with the Wallabies on last year’s Spring Tour after Mike Cron moved away from the full-time scrum-coach role and into an advisory position. Rugby Australia’s decision to extend him through 2028 is a vote for stability in one of the areas where Test rugby is least forgiving.
Australia can talk all it likes about attacking identity, pace, offloading and a more expressive Wallabies game, but none of that survives for long if the scrum is creaking. Ulugia’s background gives him credibility in that space: a former hooker, a 50-cap Super Rugby player across the Brumbies and Waratahs, and a long-serving Top 14 forward with Clermont and Bayonne.
That mix matters. He has seen Australian front-row development from the inside, but he has also lived in one of the most demanding scrum cultures in Europe. For a Wallabies group trying to bridge the gap to the best packs in the world before 2027, that is more than a neat CV line.
Fisher adds another Reds thread
Fisher’s arrival is just as significant for what it says about Kiss’s transition. He worked with Kiss at London Irish and then followed him to Brisbane before the 2024 Super Rugby Pacific season. That existing relationship should help the Wallabies avoid the awkward bedding-in period that can come when a new head coach arrives with a staff still learning each other’s language.
It also strengthens the domestic feel of the operation. Kiss leaves Queensland having helped restore the Reds as a serious Australian force, and ReadRugbyUnion has already looked at how Cadeyrn Neville’s return to the Reds fits into the next phase at Ballymore. Fisher now gives the national side another coach who has been close to that Queensland environment and the players coming through it.
That should matter when Australia’s selection debates sharpen over the next month. The Wallabies are not short of individual talent, but the national side has too often felt like a patchwork of promising parts rather than a settled programme. The more clearly Kiss can connect Super Rugby performances to Test expectations, the better.
A staff built around domestic knowledge
Rugby Australia’s high-performance director Peter Horne pointed to the staff’s Super Rugby Pacific understanding when welcoming the appointments, and that is the key line. Les Kiss, Scott McLeod, Tom Donnelly, Eoin Toolan, Ulugia and Fisher give Australia a coaching group with a strong read on the domestic game.
That does not guarantee anything. The Wallabies still need sharper decision-making, better discipline under pressure and a tighter identity against elite opposition. But it does mean the coaches should arrive with fewer blind spots about the players they are asking to carry the jersey.
The Brumbies angle is important too. Ulugia will continue with the Canberra side, keeping him close to one of Australia’s most consistent high-performance environments. ReadRugbyUnion’s recent look at the Brumbies’ Super Rugby finals test against the Hurricanes underlined how often Canberra remain the Australian benchmark for structure, set-piece detail and competitive edge.
Those qualities are exactly what the Wallabies need to carry into a demanding 2026 Test schedule and, beyond that, the home World Cup build-up.
The July window now has extra weight
Before Kiss fully takes over, the July Nations Championship Tests will still help frame the next set of decisions. Joe Schmidt’s final stretch has already placed plenty of focus on selection, and our recent piece on Schmidt handing his successor important July selection calls captured why this window is more than just another mid-year series.
The new coaching mix gives the Wallabies a cleaner bridge from Schmidt to Kiss. Ulugia provides scrum continuity. Fisher brings a trusted voice from the Reds. Kiss gets people around him who know the domestic pool and the standards required outside Australia.
For supporters, the headline is simple enough: this is not a revolution. It is Australia trying to make sure the next Wallabies era is built with enough continuity, enough local intelligence and enough hard-edged forward detail to give a home World Cup campaign a proper base.
That may not be glamorous, but for the Wallabies it might be exactly the point.
